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Top Ten Haunted Hotels in America

BOO!!!! Happy Halloween everyone! This is one of my favorite holidays of the year and to get everyone into the spirit of things, I thought I would share with you a list of the top ten haunted hotels in America as ranked by Trip Advisor recently. I have looked into what makes these hotels such a haunt and I am sharing my findings with you. Read, enjoy and schedule a stay, if you dare! Happy hauntings…..

Copper Queen Hotel (Bisbee, Arizona)

Completed in 1902, the Copper Queen Hotel was the product of a booming mining camp called Bisbee and one of the most modern hotels in the West during that time. Constructed by the Phelps Dodge Mining Company, the hotel was once a place for dignitaries and investors to relax in luxury.

There are reportedly three resident ghosts in the Copper Queen Hotel. One of the ghostly residents is an older gentleman with long hair and a beard. Guests and staff have reported seeing him wearing a top hat and a black cape. They have also claimed smelling the aroma of cigar smoke either before or after seeing him. He typically appears in the doorway and sometimes as a shadow in the rooms which are located on the fourth floor.
The second ghost, and perhaps the most famous, is that of a woman in her thirties named Julia Lowell. As the story goes, she was a prostitute and used the hotel to meet her clients. She fell madly in love with one of her clients and when she confessed, he no longer wanted to see her. Distraught, she took her own life at the hotel. Guests and staff at the hotel say that they feel her presence on the second and third floors of the west side of the building. Male staff and guests have reported hearing a female voice whispering in their ear. One of the rooms in the hotel is named the Julia Lowell room, as a tribute.

The third apparition is the ghost of a little boy who drowned in the San Pedro River. His presence in the hotel is explained through his relatives or parents who once worked at the hotel. Guests have reported objects being moved by the little ghost in their rooms. Others have reported hearing footsteps in the halls and giggling. The little boy’s ghost has never been seen, only heard.

The hotel maintains a Ghost Journal at the front desk.

Jerome Grand Hotel ( Jerome, Arizona)

Built as a hospital in 1926, the Jerome Grand Hotel is probably one of the most actively haunted places. The hospital closed in 1950 and for the next 44 years, stories of ghost sightings, spirit orbs, paranormal and supernatural activities flourished. The hospital was renovated into the Jerome Grand Hotel in 1994 and the reputation of the old hospital and the ghost sightings continued. Originally, the current owners did not want a haunted house or a haunted hotel. They played down the fact that certain guests saw ghosts and captured pictures of supernatural orbs.

There are stories of strange noises coming from empty rooms, reports of lights or TV’s turning on and off. There are unexplained aromas of flowers, dust, cigarettes and whiskey. Two female apparitions have been seen by numerous visitors. The first specter is that of a nurse carrying a clipboard. She roams the halls, pausing at intervals and leaning down, looking at beds that no longer exist and patients long since dead. The other, a woman in white, has been identified as a woman who died in childbirth. Neither she nor her baby left the hospital halls. According to legend she is distraught over the treatment of her dead child, who was buried in an unmarked grave. According to the locals, she stalks the hotel, searching for her child’s final resting place.

Julia Lowell Room

Hotel del Coronado (Coronado, California)

The Hotel del Coronado opened its doors in 1888 and was the largest hotel in the world at the time. It served numerous presidents, celebrities and even royalty and has been featured in an assortment of books and films.

The hotel came to be renowned not only for its beauty but also for the hauntings reported there. Among the hotel’s most famous ghosts is a woman named Kate Morgan who checked in in 1892 and has never checked out. She took her own life in the hotel after she was jilted by her estranged husband during Thanksgiving. It is said that the spirit of Kate Morgan remains in her former guestroom, Room 3327.

One of the most haunted rooms in the hotel is ironically, the gift shop. The gift shop was established in 1888 and it was originally located in the hotel’s lower lobby level. Guests and staff have reported seeing glassware, pictures and other things in the room flying off the shelves and the wall.

Room 3519 was the place where a maid was said to have hung herself. Several guests have reported mysterious temperature changes, disembodied voices, footsteps and unseen hands touching them.

The Queen Mary ( Long Beach, California)

The historic ocean liner, the Queen Mary, is now permanently docked and serves as a hotel and tourist attraction, albeit one of the most haunted hotels/attractions on record.

Queen Mary Engine Room

The First Class Swimming Pool, for instance, is reportedly haunted by the ghosts of two women who drowned there, one in the 1930s and the other in the 1960s. The changing rooms near the pool are the source of negative feelings detected by numerous psychics.

Other haunted areas of the ship include the Queen’s Salon (with the ghost of a young woman in a white dress), the First Class Suites (a man in a 1930s suit), the Forward Storage Room (children playing) and the Tourist Class Swimming Pool (a drowned woman). There have been so many disturbances reported in cabin B340 that it is no longer rented out.

Approximately 50 people have reportedly died on the Queen Mary, and as you would expect, the ship’s Morgue is believed to be haunted as well. Among them was 18-year-old John Pedder, a crewman who was crushed by door #13 during a watertight drill and is sometimes spotted wearing the blue coveralls in which he died. Another was William Stark, who drank poison that the ship’s captain was keeping in an old gin bottle.

The ship offers various ghost tours and transforms itself into a haunted house during Halloween. Guests need not stay in the hotel to experience the ship’s other worldly offerings.

Stanley Hotel (Estes Park, Colorado)

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado is the setting which inspired Stephen King to write The Shining, and is dubbed the most haunted place in America.

The hotel appears to be a Disneyland for ghosts, scores of which haunt the four floors, lobby, music room, basement and tunnels of this historic building. It is said that the quartz which forms the foundation of this building, as the hotel is built right into the side of the Rocky Mountains, attracts electro-magnetic fields and draws energy to itself, hence the apparitions.

Marshall House (Savannah, Georgia)

Constructed in 1851, The Marshall House Hotel is the oldest hotel in Savannah, Georgia, and is reportedly one of the city’s most haunted places. Over the course of its history the hotel served as a boarding house and a hospital. It was first utilized as a hospital during the later days of the Civil War. Occupied first by the Confederate forces of Lt. General William J. Hardee and later by Union armies under the direction of William T.Sherman, the hotel housed hundreds of wounded soldiers, including many whom died or underwent amputations during their stay.

Guests have reported encounters with a young man holding his own severed arm and looking for someone to reattach it. Additionally, many have commented to hotel staff about seeing actors wandering the halls in authentic Civil War-era clothing, but the hotel employs no such actors.

In 1876, a yellow fever epidemic swept through the town, killing hundreds. The Marshall House once again served as a temporary hospital to treat the infected masses. To this day hotel guests continue to report strange experiences that many attribute to lingering spirits from this era.

Admiral Fell Inn (Baltimore, Maryland)

The Admiral Fell Inn began as The Anchorage, a boarding house built by the Mission Women’s Auxiliary to house merchant seaman. Later, the YMCA assumed operation of The Anchorage until 1955 when the facility fell into disrepair.

In 1985 that The Anchorage buildings were renovated and reemerged as the Admiral Fell Inn. Given the history of the structure and the types of inhabitants which occupied its rooms, it is no wonder that it is haunted.

One legend speaks of a scientist who saw the apparition of a nurse walk through his wall after being awakened by the creaking of his room’s floorboards. He was staying in Room 218. One of the housekeeping staff reported being touched by an unseen hand and felt cold spots on different occasions while working in room 413.

Bullock Hotel (Deadwood, South Dakota)

The Bullock Hotel was built and named after Deadwood’s first sheriff, Seth Bullock. What started out as a warehouse was eventually turned into a 3-story hotel with 63 rooms . The Ayres family purchased the hotel in 1976 and converted it into a hardware store. In 1991 the building was purchased by Bullock Properties and converted back into a hotel. When Bullock Properties started extensive renovations of the hotel, its original 63 rooms were reduced to 28 more larger rooms each equipped with its own bath.

Legend states that the original owner of the hotel, Seth Bullocks still haunts the hotel to this day. Deadwood’s first sheriff died in the hotel on September 23, 1919 in room 211. Many guests and hotel staff alike, have reported seeing the ghost of the Sheriff wondering throughout the hotel. In the second and third floor rooms of the hotel, guests have reported seeing inexplicable occurrences. Alarm clocks go off by themselves. Televisions turn on even when they are unplugged and an antique clock chimes of its own accord even if it has not been working for several years.

Hotel Galvez & Spa (Galveston, Texas)

Built in 1911 the Hotel Galvez & Spa is said to be one of the most haunted places in Galveston, Texas. It is the home of “The Lovelorn Lady, ” a very active spirit who inhabits the 5th floor of the hotel. It is said that the spirit is that of a young lady who checked into Room 500, waiting for her fiancé to return from sea. While waiting for their rendezvous, she received news that her fiancé’s ship had sunk somewhere off the coast of Florida. Desperate and grieving, she hung herself in her room. She is said to be trapped eternally in the hotel, still waiting for her fiancé.

Staff and guests have reported strange activity in the room. Toilets flushing by themselves, stall doors shaking, faucets turning on by themselves and voices heard even when the room was empty. The strange scent of gardenias has also been reported.

Menger Hotel (San Antonio, Texas)

The Menger Hotel was built in 1859 by William Menger, and it is one of the oldest and most well known in all of Texas. In its day, it was widely recognized as the grandest hotel west of the Mississippi, playing host to several important guests including Sam Houston, Generals Lee and Grant, and Presidents McKinley, Taft, Eisenhower, and Roosevelt, as well as Babe Ruth and Mae West.

Today, it is believed to be the most haunted hotel in Texas, with no fewer than 32 separate ghosts reported throughout the years.

Of all the ghosts perhaps the most high profile one has to be that of former President Teddy Roosevelt. It was here at the Menger Bar where he would convince unsuspecting cowboys to join his detachment of Rough Riders over a free drink. Before they had time to sober up, they found themselves on the way to Fort Sam Houston for military training, before joining up with the forces fighting the Spanish American War. Roosevelt’s apparition has often been seen sitting at the bar enjoying a drink.

The most often reported sighting is a woman called Sallie White. She was a chambermaid at the hotel during Victorian period who, after completing her work shift, was attacked by her husband. Suffering from severe injuries, she tragically lost her life days later. You may see Sallie during the night on the way back to your room, in her Victorian maid outfit, carrying a handful of towels for guests.

Another specter of woman has been seen in the original hotel lobby. On one occasion a staff member witnessed a woman in an old-fashioned blue dress seated in the old lobby, knitting. Approaching her, the staff member asked if she was okay and if there was anything she needed, only to be met with a stern “No”, and the apparition disappearing shortly after.